Mutual Blindness
by Kaylessa
Summary: Only people that believe in the Guardians can see them. Only people who are dead or have strong spirit power can see the shinigami of Soul Society. But Jack doesn't know that last part and becomes really frustrated in the conversation involving parties that can't see each other, or believe they exist, for that matter.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Bleach. I'm just having fun mixing up the toys in their sandboxes. This takes place a year after the Rise of the Guardians movie and is RIGHT at the beginning of the arrancar arc in Bleach, the night Grimmjow and his buddies make a mess of Karakura town. I know the time of year probably doesn't match up (I haven't read those chapters of Bleach in a long while, so I honestly can't remember when it takes place. Be my luck it's nowhere near Spring, though) but humor me a bit, will ya? I promise it won't hurt.**

.oOo.

Bunny stared at him, shrewd green eyes skeptical in every way.

Jack, for his part, did his very best to look completely sincere and earnest. It helped that he wasn't lying or trying to trick the Pooka at all. Most people that knew Jack, including the rabbit in front of him, thought that he didn't care about much, just how to have fun and play pranks. But contrary to the popular belief, the boy _did_ care, and at that moment, with his request to the Easter Bunny, he was surprisingly invested in the answer.

Finally, _finally,_ Bunnymund sighed, heavy and long-suffering, and said, "A'right! Fine, you can help with Easter."

Jack gave an excited whoop and flipped backwards onto a moss-covered boulder in celebration.

"Oi!" Bunny shouted to get his attention again and pointed a threatening finger straight at him. "But if you mess anythin' up, I swear I'll-"

"I promise!" Jack quickly exclaimed, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. "This is gonna be great! C'mon! We gotta finish the eggs, right?" Without waiting for an answer, he leaped off of the boulder and zoomed deeper into the Warren to help the egglets paint and prepare themselves for the big day.

Bunny, more anxious for this year's Easter than he had been in a long time, still spared a moment to look after the boy. It was the very same reason that made him recoil from Jack's request to help that convinced him to say yes. Just one year of getting to know him as someone other than an irritating troublemaker let Bunny see just how much Jack wanted to make amends for his devastating distraction the previous year.

That wouldn't stop Bunny from keeping a close eye on him, though, as he chased after the boy.

.oOo.

Jack was actually kind of surprised, and probably wouldn't admit it to Bunny, that he was having a lot of fun. He'd been given a rundown of the plan ("I swear if you get lost I'm leavin' you behind-" "Relax! I know my way around! I'll just let you deal with the tropics, how's that? I don't see those much.") and a handful of rules ("Don't go putting 'em anywhere dangerous! Don't need the ankle-biters breakin' bones trying to fetch googies outta rain gutters or something.") but really what was needed was directing the little egglets to their places. He'd tell them where to hide and they'd skitter off in place. Once settled, they'd lose their twiggy little legs to become normal, non-moving, hard-boiled eggs, just waiting to be found. Sometimes he'd give them a boost to their hiding spot, but still it went quickly enough. A lot of fun was to be found in being creative with the places to hide, and of course trying to keep up with Bunny.

They started in New Zealand, the country to be first to greet every new day and moved westward from there. Most of Asia, Bunny told Jack, would go by pretty quick, since a lot of folks there didn't celebrate Easter, which he thought was a crying shame. Jack was actually fairly amused by how much the Pooka was telling him about the holiday; need-to-know and otherwise. Bunny clearly loved what he did as much as Jack loved snowball fights, which was saying something, and the boy was becoming more and more glad he had offered to help.

They had split up in Japan, hitting mostly backyards, small church lots and even inside some apartments, since community-wide egg hunts in public parks weren't really done.

Jack was in someone's garden, loving all the new hiding places he was finding amongst the manicured flora, when he felt…it was almost like someone had _called_ him, but not with a voice he could actually hear. He paused briefly in what he was telling the egglets, then shook it off to finish issuing the rest their orders.

_That's_ when he felt it. Like the wind at his back, it was a rush of power that felt like _his_ but _not._ He spun around, lifting into the air at the same time and was somewhat shocked at what he saw. There, part of the way across town from him, rose a solid pillar of ice into the sky. It was _huge_; reaching all the way to the clouds and it had to be bigger around than he could stretch his arms.

Instantly he was streaking toward it, burning curiosity dragging him forward. Halfway there, though, as the pillar just barely began to crack and crumble at the top, Jack remembered what he was supposed to be doing. Easter! He _couldn't_ let himself be distracted again! Just as he was about to turn around, kicking himself for his foolishness, he spotted something faint within the column - was that a _person? -_ before it continued to crumble apart.

"Okay, I just gotta see who made that thing," he promised to himself. Then he'd get back to work.

And stick to his promise he did. Finally he reached where the base of the pillar had formed, just as it finished crumbling away into a fine, frosty dust. Jack lighted upon a rooftop to peer down at the street for the culprit. Closest to the base stood a dark-haired girl wearing traditional-looking black clothes. She had a sword in her hand - Really? A sword? Jack didn't think anybody but North still carried the things nowadays - which she quickly sheathed, silencing the faint _call_ at the back of Jack's mind. He studied her face closely, memorizing it before leaping back the way he'd come. There were only one or two more places to hide eggs, after all, then he needed to move onto the next town.

He would come back, though, to find out just who that girl was, with the sword that spoke to him.

.oOo.

Jack was honestly a little surprised that Bunny didn't mention anything about the ice pillar. He must not have seen it, since it had only been there for a few seconds. He was sure that if the rabbit had seen _anything_ that hinted at Jack slacking off, he wouldn't be shy about sharing it.

The kangaroo was right, though, and they burned through the rest of Asia pretty quickly. Jack made the mistake of using the "K" word out loud in Australia, though, and Bunny promptly felt the need for a visual lesson.

"A'right, that's it! C'mere!" Bunny growled before advancing on the boy.

Jack would deny to the end of his very long days that he _shrieked_. It was more of a yelp, thank you very much.

He just couldn't outrun the rabbit, though he gave it his best shot. A large paw grabbed him by the base of his hood, with a healthy chunk of the scruff of his neck included.

Bunny dragged his captive, squirming and struggling and _not_ shrieking in protest, down a relatively short tunnel, so they came back up quickly. He shoved Jack's head forward until he was nose-to-nose with a very startled and confused marsupial.

"_That_, mate, is a kangaroo," he stated smugly.

The poor animal made a strange noise as it backed away from the wide-eyed spirit staring at it. With a laugh, Bunny let go and Jack immediately straightened up and made a show of fixing his hoodie, though the older Guardian could hear the chuckles he was trying to smother. Then with a huff he lifted into the air, finally facing the rabbit.

"Come on! We've got work to do! You're acting like you're on holiday or something!" then he spun around and took off to the nearest egg-hiding village. He didn't even try to hide the smirk when he heard the Easter spirit sputtering behind him.

And so the night went, heckling each other, all in surprisingly good fun, while also working as fast as possible to hide the _millions_ of eggs. Jack honestly did lose track of time and place as he just let himself embrace the rush of racing the edge of morning. He was quick to call dibs on Burgess, though, which Bunny let slide with only a token grumble. Didn't stop him from hiding a couple extra-pretty googies in one special little girl's room, though.

Jack couldn't help but burst out laughing. It was tooth collecting in reverse! And so it was a surprise to him when it was on a remote Pacific island (it was only for one house on the island that they were really there for) that Bunny strolled up to him ever-so-casually, looking so pleased and smug it should have been illegal. It gave him such pause that he realized, "Wait, are we done?"

The Pooka just couldn't seem to stand it anymore and leapt into the air, pumping his fist with a crow of victory. "_And_ with time ta' spare!" His excited display floored Jack so much that he couldn't react at _all_ when Bunny suddenly grabbed him around the shoulders and roughly mussed his hair. His startled shout was much belated and mingled with Bunny's relieved laughter that may or may not have had a _touch_ of hysteria to it. Of course he couldn't stop himself from laughing, too.

He had _done_ it. Maybe it didn't make up for his mistakes, per say, but he had done what he promised and had apparently done it _well._

"C'mon!" Bunny suddenly shouted excitedly. "This's the best part!" And without waiting for an answer, dragged the laughing boy behind him into a freshly opened tunnel.

They came out at an unidentified park – Jack had seen _so_ many parks that night that he had thoroughly lost track of which was where – and ducked behind some bushes so the child-believers wouldn't see them. And there was a _crowd_, too. The hunt had apparently just started and there were children of all ages scrambling all over the place, giggling and shrieking with excitement. In no time at all there were shouts of "I found one!" coming from all corners of the park.

Bunny practically glowed.

Then they were down and up another tunnel to witness the progress of another hunt. Then another and another and another, until Bunny's feverish excitement seemed to relax into relieved contentment. Jack was honestly a little surprised at how happy he was just so see how happy _Bunny_ was. It was the kind of happy he got when he managed to make grumpy kids have fun on a snow day.

Well, maybe it wasn't so much a surprise then, considering how grumpy Bunny usually was…

"So we did pretty good, huh?" Jack nudged him in the side, grinning cheekily.

Bunny snorted good-naturedly. "Mate, you still have a thing or two ta learn about hidin' eggs."

Jack huffed, faking offense, "Hey, I just need some more practice, alright?" As soon as he said it, though, he realized just how weighted that comment was with implications

"Oh, yer gonna need more than jus' that!" Bunny scoffed easily, but not because he ignored the significance. He just took it in stride. "But we can start there."

They looked each other in the eye, something passing between them, underneath the banter and deeper than either was willing to express out loud. A chance to heal, learn and grow beyond their decades upon decades of animosity.

Jack felt his heart clench in his chest at an idea he hadn't let grow too much over the past year. Or at least, he thought he hadn't let it grow. A year ago, he had helped the Guardians, become one himself, shared a camaraderie that he'd never really felt before. But he hadn't let himself grow _too_ attached; he didn't think he should do that lest it all came to an end, unlikely thought that may be.

Now, though, he couldn't help himself as his heart seemed to clench and swell at the same time. He just couldn't seem to stop the growing in his heart of…hope.

Bunny's eyebrows rose at the same time his ears did, his smile becoming more broad and sincere. He knew his business, after all, and recognized that light in Jack's eyes.

"C'mon," he said, laying a paw on the boy's shoulder. "Looks like it's gonna be a fine Easter. Let's go get somethin' ta eat, huh?"

.oOo.

**Author's Note: Yeah, I know there wasn't hardly any Bleach involved in this chapter (you practically have to squint to see it) but I needed to make sure Easter was properly taken care of before I let my plot get away from me and do illogical things, like let Jack and Bunny investigate an ice-pillar phenomenon while they're supposed to be SUPER BUSY. Besides, I didn't want them to stick around in Karakura with all the rest of the craziness that was about to explode all over the place. Literally. **

**And...well, I may or may not be obsessed with Jack-Bunny brotherly-type fics. I just love that relationship between them and I couldn't help but indulge myself a bit. I hope it doesn't distract from where I want to take the story, but I couldn't bear to just leave it at "And they spent the rest of the night hiding eggs." And I really really really wanted to do the kangaroo thing. I saw an artist to a little comic like that and I had to hijack it. XD**


	2. Chapter 2

They returned to the Warren for a meal, unsurprisingly vegetarian, and a good rest. Though the Guardians need sleep less than humans (even Sandy; he contests that he naps because he _likes_ it, not because he _needs_ it) Jack and Bunny had just had a very long night, had literally chased it the whole world 'round, and deserved a good crash.

Waking up in the soft grass to the sound of songbirds was somewhat disorienting for Jack, who was used to snowdrift beds and the muffled silence of falling snow. He sat up blinking, taking a moment to remember what he was doing in the Warren.

"Finally woke up, huh? Lightweight," a familiar voice scoffed.

Slightly startled, Jack lifted up, spinning to face Bunny, who he was surprised to see was smiling openly, despite the tease. Which, for some reason, only served to annoy Jack, but it amused him at the same time. He couldn't let Bunny know that, of course.

"Well I stuck around thinking you might need some help…I dunno, cleaning up after Easter or something," he said, half blustering while trying to keep a straight face. "But if you're gonna be like that, I can just…go. 'cause you know, I have things to do!"

Bunny outright laughed in his face. "Oh, I'm sure, all kinds of pressin' appointments. Like where, for example?"

Jack stuttered, trying to come up with something plausible when he managed to land upon an idea, which had almost been buried in the madness of their Easter eve. "Japan!" And as soon as he said it, he realized how true it was that he needed to go back to that small Asian town to find the woman with the sword and the ice pillar. Bunny's furry eyebrows rose, but the truth behind it fueled Jack's determination. "There's someone in Japan that I gotta go see. I just thought I'd be polite and wait 'til I was done helping _you._ So you're welcome, and bye."

Jack started to lift higher into the air to make as dignified an escape as possible, but Bunny, impossibly quick Bunny who Jack had very recently and bodily learned could not be outrun or flown, snagged his ankle and held on. "Hang on, then! I'll come with ya, if it's so important! Maybe you'll need some help!"

Never was a more blatant falsehood told to Jack's face, not even from Pitch, and Jack knew it. Heck, Jack knew that _Bunny_ knew that Jack knew it. Bunny just wanted to corner him in his supposed lie about an urgent appointment in Japan.

Well fine, then. Two could play at that game.

"I dunno, Bunny. She's a Snow Demon-" okay, so he didn't actually _know_ that, and he'd never actually met one, but he's heard of the Japanese ice witches before and seen some of their work, so it was only logical, right? And it's not like Bunny would know any better. "-they call them yuki onnas over there. Could get a little cold."

The Pooka positively _bristled_, and Jack had to choke back his laugh. Hook, line and sinker.

"Ah, no, mate! I'm comin' with ya and it'll take a lot more than that to scare me off! Where on Earth do you think _North_ lives?" He stepped aside to collect his satchel and boomerangs and sling them across his back, muttering, "A little cold…" Facing Jack again, who had planted his feet on the ground again, thoroughly enjoying his personal joke, Bunny declared, "Japan, right? 'bout what part?"

Jack tilted his head and had to honestly think about it as Bunny poised his foot, ready to open a tunnel. "Um…it was on a river, I remember that-" Bunny snorted. "-okay, so Japan's an island, there's water everywhere. But I think it started with a K…Kora…kara?" and he looked up kind of helplessly, struggling with the foreign word, but the Easter Bunny knew his stuff and figured it out.

"Karakura it is!" and they disappeared down the tunnel.

* * *

Kuchiki Rukia was not stumped. She had just run out of options. All she could think of to do now was wander around Karakura town and hope she could sense Ichigo's elusive reiatsu by accident.

She snorted at the irony. Usually the fool let his reiatsu shine like a lighthouse, but now she couldn't sense a scrap of it. There was no way he had accomplished the feat on his own with such immediate results. Ichigo had help, and she could only hope it had been solicited.

At least the added benefit to wandering town was that she would be ready to act at a moment's notice should the arrancar forces attack again. She could feel the scattered reiatsus of her fellow shinigami and could trust that an immediate response would be achieved by the nearest party. As it was, low-grade hollows, attracted to the area as they were by the sheer concentration of power, popped up with regularity and were quickly dispatched. So she could be frequently seen walking around town messing with her phone, as she was at the present. Then the device gave a strange hiccuped beep nearby. It didn't quite register as a Hollow, but at the same time, didn't know what to make of it.

Taking no chances, however, Rukia popped a Chappy pill into her mouth and quickly headed toward the disturbance with instructions to the artificial soul to follow behind, but at a safe distance. She sped through the streets, leaping to a rooftop as she got closer, seeking the advantage of higher ground. She stopped, perching on top of a telephone pole to observe the figure on the ground below her. Human-wise, he looked like he might be older than Ichigo by a couple years, but then, she doubted he was human. She could clearly see his bare feet, which meant he wasn't a plus soul. His ratty brown pants and blue hoodie indicated that he wasn't a shinigami (on duty, anyway). Arrancar typically wear white, so what _was_ he? She could feel an odd power coming from him, but what unnerved Rukia was how _familiar_ it felt. A moment more of observation told her why. The frost on the shoulders of his shirt and embedded in the wood of his staff spoke to her of cold and snow; Sode no Shiraiyuki whispered to her that she wasn't wrong. His unkempt white hair even reminded her of Hitsugaya-taicho, another weather shinigami.

All of these observations, though, really didn't alarm Rukia quite so much as the fact that this white-haired, frost-touched boy was arguing heatedly with...thin air.

"-didn't have to take your stupid tunnels this time! I can get around by myself just fine!" He paused, even seeming to listen to a counter-argument by an invisible party. Then, "I would've found the town on my own! Just because I didn't remember the name-" Again, he cut off, his expression becoming an even deeper scowl before he finally huffed, "Whatever, cotton-tail. I came here because I have stuff to do." With that, he turned from his imagined argument and simply lifted into the air with a gust of wind. He didn't step onto a collection of reishi like quincy, shinigami and arrancar do, but seemed to lift up with just the breeze. And he did so exactly in front of Rukia.

He caught her gaze and nearly fell out of the sky in surprise. She had been startled herself at being found watching him so suddenly, but she was quick to school her expression so as to give away nothing. The boy, however, wore his emotions openly and stared at her without apology. Rukia had not quite determined what he was (and he had no soul-chain on his chest, nor could she identify anything that could be a hollow hole or fragment of mask) but felt that she should press her advantage while he was so clearly surprised her off-balance.

"Who are-"

"I found her!" the boy shouted abruptly, glancing back down at the ground. "Bunny! I found her!" He turned to look at Rukia, a happy expression on his face. "I can't believe I found you so quickly!"

Now Rukia was truly on edge. At his mention of "Bunny" she hurriedly checked the surrounding area for her Chappy gikongan in her gigai, but there is no sign of her. Then what -or who- did he mean by "Bunny?" Secondly, the fact that he had apparently come looking for her specifically, what was he playing at?

A cold dread gripped her heart. So much chaos had happened in Soul Society because of Aizen with her at its center. But the Hogyoku was taken, it and Aizen gone to parts unknown. Was this boy after her for some related reason? Very nearly panicked, Rukia barely kept from drawing her zanpakutou on him. Then he was back to talking with nobody on the ground.

Okay, _now_ she was annoyed. This scruffy-haired boy shows up out of nowhere, she can't identify _what_ he is, nearly gives her a heart attack and now he has the gall to ignore her in favor of some _imaginary friend?_

"That's enough!" she exclaimed. He turned to look at her, surprised. "Who are you?"

"Well I'm Jack. Jack Frost." He looked at her somewhat expectantly, as if the name should mean something to her, but it didn't ring any bells.

"Are you some kind of arrancar? What are you doing here? And _who are you talking to?!"_

His eyes grew wider with each question, but the last one dropped him right out of the sky.

* * *

**Author's Note: Yay! I updated it! And look! Bleach is finally involved! I'll be honest, though, I had only a vague idea of where I wanted this story to go and when I was working on this chapter, the characters (okay, mostly it was Rukia being a brat) were the ones who insisted on what I should write. I kinda like where it's going, though, since it makes it more interesting than what I was originally planning.**

**I have the next chapter already written (yay inspiration fairy!) but I thought I'd let this one sit up for a little while, just so I don't spoil you with two chapters at once. ;D**


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